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FSU says professor's wife killed in London knife attack

The American woman killed in a mass stabbing Wednesday in London was the wife of a Florida State University eminent scholar, according to FSU officials.

FSU says professor's wife killed in London knife attack

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Updated: 4:54 PM EDT Aug 4, 2016

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —

The American woman killed in a mass stabbing Wednesday in London was the wife of a Florida State University eminent scholar, according to FSU officials.

Richard Wagner, Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Psychology, and his wife, were in London where he taught in the summer session at the university’s renowned London Study Program. Wednesday night, she and five other pedestrians were suddenly attacked by a knife-wielding man in Russell Square. She died at the scene, officials said.

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James Pitts, director of FSU International Programs, said students already had left the program for the summer, and none were involved in the incident at Russell Square.

Pitts said that university administrators in London immediately offered assistance to Wagner. The couple had planned to return to Tallahassee Aug. 4, Pitts said.

“There are no words to express our heartache over this terrible tragedy,” said FSU President John Thrasher. “We are shocked that such senseless violence has touched our own FSU family, and we will do all we can to assist Professor Wagner and his loved ones, as well as his friends and colleagues in the psychology department, as they mourn.”

Wagner holds the W. Russell and Eugenia Morcom chair in Psychology. He also is the associate director of the Florida Center for Reading Research.